LITTLE LESTER.
THE young people were so full of the overturned basket and its
mysterious contents that Randall forgot to tease Hugh as much as usual.
And besides, Miss Ashlyn's quiet presence rather awed the little bully,
who was not quite sure how she would take it, if he let his sharp
tongue loose on his delicate brother.
Indeed, since the episode of the sticky pen, Randall could not forget
the sudden glance Gertrude had given towards his little hands, nor the
quiet and firm tone in which she had told him to go to nurse to have
them washed. Nor did he like Daisy's exclamation as he was leaving the
room—
"Why, Miss Ashlyn, how funny that your watch should have been sticky
too!"
So he decided to keep quiet for a time and make some plan of mischief
which should be more annoying and more difficult of discovery.
Hugh and Daisy soon made their way to the schoolroom, and settled
themselves cosily under Gertrude's wing, the little boy conning his
lessons with great industry, only occasionally asking for some help
in a gentle, entreating little tone, which Gertrude thought she quite
understood since their conversation that morning.
At last, the books were put away, and Daisy came over to Gertrude's
side and said softly, "Are we friends enough yet?"
Gertrude smiled. "What do you think?" she asked.
"I think we are," said Daisy. "When Hugh and I take to people, we
'take' to them, and we don't change a bit."
"I see; so you consider you have 'taken' to me?"
"You are laughing at us?"
"Only a very little. I am so glad, Daisy, if you have. Come, then, and
sit by the fire, and we will have a sort of story—
"About seven years ago my pretty sister Rose was married—"
"Was she like you?" interrupted Daisy with a little smile.
"Oh no! A hundred times prettier," said Gertrude enthusiastically;
"oh no! Her husband travels for a large firm in London, and my sister
generally has her home at Camptown, near where I come from."
"Yes," nodded Hugh. "I know about Camptown; there are soldiers there."
"Yes. Well, by and by there came a dear little baby boy to my sister's
home, and she and her husband doted on him more than I can say. My
sister used to take him about with her, if the places that her husband
went to were near enough, and they used to have such happy times.
Sometimes, however, he went alone.
"Once, when she was staying at a watering-place in the south, she was
suddenly called to Scotland to nurse her husband, and left her darling
little boy in the landlady's care.
"Whether she was right or wise to do such a thing does not matter
now. The landlady seemed a very nice woman, and my sister trusted her
completely.
"When she got back again—think of it, Daisy and Hugh—the house was
empty, the woman and her husband and little boy were all gone too!—and
with them our little darling, the most precious thing in the world to
all of us!"
Hugh and Daisy gazed in Gertrude's face, but they seemed as if they
could not ask a question.
"Ever since, my dear sister has gone about searching for her lost
child, little Lester. And never have we heard one single word of him
from that day to this."
Hugh's little hand was put out till it touched Gertrude's softly, and
he said—
"Perhaps, some day—"
"Yes," she answered, "we live in hope of that. Hugh, he used to say,
'I've opened my heart to Jesus, and He's come in!'"
"Who taught him that?" asked Daisy gently.
"I think I taught him," said Gertrude. "My dear sister did not know her
Saviour herself then, and it was not till little Lester was taken away
that she found she needed a Saviour."
Hugh's eyes gave a flash, but he looked down quickly and was silent.
"I believe you love Him too, Hugh," said Gertrude, drawing the boy to
her.
"I'm so bad," said Hugh in a low tone. "So afraid—and so nasty
sometimes, but yet—" he paused. Then meeting Daisy's eyes, and flushing
up to the roots of his hair, he added courageously, "Yes, I do. In
spite of not being a bit what I should be, I do. And He loves me!"
Daisy looked well satisfied. She had been almost afraid that Hugh's
courage would vanish under the test to which it was being put. But
as she had found many times, to her surprise, there was a secret of
strength in the frail little boy that surpassed her utmost expectations.
"Now we must go to bed," she said, rising reluctantly. "Thank you ever
so much, Miss Ashlyn."
Hugh put up his face for a kiss, and then Gertrude was left alone with
her heart full of her sister Rose and of lost little Lester.
And every time she shut her eyes, she seemed to see before them a pair
of worn, shabby little kid-lined slippers!
[Illustration]
[Illustration]